Do You Have The Nerve Of A Squirrel?

A young writer with a very uncertain income went into a quiet park to contemplate a serious problem. For four years he had been engaged, but felt he did not have enough money to get married. He wanted to live and write in Paris, Rome, Vienna, London--everywhere. However, without the security of money, his plan seemed hopeless.

As he thought about his situation, he looked up and at that moment saw a squirrel jump from one high tree to another. He appeared to be aiming for a limb so far out of reach that the leap looked like suicide. He missed that limb--but landed, safe and unconcerned, on a branch several feet lower. Then he climbed to his goal, and all was well. An old man sitting on the bench next to him said, "Funny, I’ve seen hundreds of them jump like that, especially when there are dogs around and they can’t come down to the ground. A lot of them miss the branch, but I’ve never seen any miss the tree or get hurt in trying." Then he chuckled. "I guess they’ve got to risk it if they don’t want to spend their whole lives in one tree."

Suddenly the writer thought, a squirrel takes a chance--have I less nerve than a squirrel? They were married two weeks later and scraped up enough money to go to Europe. They jumped off into space, not sure what branch they would land on. He began to write twice as fast and twice as hard as ever before and soon they were living comfortably.

(From a sermon by Rick Boyne, Trust in Action, 4/13/2011)

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